RESOURCE LINKS Obituaries

~ Castle Valley

Two miles southwest of Doylestown on Neshaminy Creek at the intersection of Almshouse and Lower State Roads. Once a part of Warwick, it was included in Doylestown Township in 1819. In colonial times it was known as Bartons Ford, so named for Thomas Barton, a nephew of Walter Shewell, founder of Plainswick Hall a short half mile from Castle Valley. Barton bought this tract of 200 acres on the east bank of the Neshaminy from the executors of Jeremiah Langhorne in 1750. Bartons Ford may have been the name of this locality down to 1835, when the covered bridge was built to carry the Lower State Road over the creek. The name was then changed to Castle Valley.

Place Names in Bucks County, Doylestown, Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown PA, 1942-George MacReynolds

Joseph 'Archambault had a romantic career. He was born at Fontainbleau,near· Paris, August 22, 1796, and educated at the military school at St. Cyr. Being left an orphan, he became a ward of the Empire through family influence and was attached t.o
the Emperor's household. After Elba he was again attached to the Emperor sult and followed his fortunes l(t was wounded at Waterloo and left upon the field, but rejoining the Emperor, himself and brother were among the number selected to accompany him to St. Helena. Refusing to give up his sword, he broke it and threw the pieces into thc sea. Landing in New York May 5: 1817, he spent the next four years with William Cobbett at his model farm, Long Island, with Joseph Bonaparte, Bordentown, and at other places,
coming to Newtown, 1821, where he lived until about 1850. He died at Philadelphia, July 3, 1874, meanwhile living a few years on a farm at·Castle Valley, Bucks county. He served in the cavalry for a time in the Civil war, 1861-65  *Davis History of Bucks County

Nathaniel Shewell, a leading character of this vicinity, and a descendant of Walter, is remembered 'by persons of the present generation. He used to relate that, when a boy, shad came up the Neshaminy as far as Castle Valley bridge, which argues there were -no dams in the stream at that day to impede their passage. He was elected 'sheriff the fall of 1799; served a term of three years, and died in 1861.  Nathaniel Shewell's will was executed July 27, 1847, and a codicil added, October ,28, 1855, was probated Jauuary 2, 1861. .He was one of Doylestown's earliest merchants, prior to 1790.
*Davis History of Bucks County

The MEREDITH’S, early settlers in Doylestown Township, were among the first to take up land on Neshaminy creek, in the vicinity of Castle Valley bridge. James Meredith came as early as about 1730, whose son, Hugh Meredith, was ·a practicing physician at Doylestown, 1776. The descendants of the Meredith family, quite 'numerous in Bucks and neighboring counties, descend from Chester county ancestry, settling there at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 'William Meredith, the partner of Benjamin Franklin, 1725, and the late Hon. 'William M. Meredith were both of this same family. James, said to have 'been a brothel" of Franklin's partner, was the immediate progenitor of our Bucks county family. His uncle Thomas became possessed of several hundred acres about Castle Valley on both sides of the creek, and his son Thomas, 'crazed with over-much study, tile inheritor of these lands, was sent to Bucks county to spend his life on his possessions, his cousin James coming along to take care of him. The harmless, demented young man in his whims planned -the building of a castle on the right bank 'of Neshaminy, near the Alms-House road. With labor and perseverance, he carried to the spot a great quantity of ·stones, piled them up in a circle as high as his head, cut down trees and had the logs transported to the site. His castle building, which many saner men often indulge, but in not half so practical a way, was not interfered with, and when he died, the logs and stones were used to build the first bridge that spanned the 'stream, and several dwellings. Thomas MEREDITH'S castle building gave the name to that locality. At the death of the crazy cousin the land came into the possession of James, embracing the farms of the late Sheridan T. Patterson, 'Lewis Tomlinson, that owned by George W. LIGHTCAP and others. He built a house On the Patterson Farm, long owned by the late Monroe Buckman, and 'married Mary NICHOLAS, of Philadelphia. He had four sons, Simon, John, 'Thomas and Hugh. James Meredith bought an adjoining farm, late Bonsall's, 'but then belonging to Samuel Wells, who built a house on it as early as 1730, and 'which is still standing. Simon·MEREDITH, born in 1740, married Hannah Hough, 1766, a daughter ‘of Joseph Hough, and granddaughter of Richard Hough" who settled on the banks of the Delaware, 1682, and died in 1813. 'Hugh, a 'physician, married Mary Todd, and lived and died at Doylestown. His two sons, John and Joseph, were likewise physicians, and his daughter, Elizabeth, -married Abraham CHAPMAN and became the mother of the late Henry Chapman. The widow of Simon MEREDITH died April l8, 1819, aged eighty-seven, 'which carries her birth back to 1732. The older branches of the Meredith 'family intermarried with the Fells, Mathewses, Foulkes, etc.    *Davis History of Bucks County


Death Notices

Doylestown Intelligencer 1932 December
Atler, At Edison, Pa., Nov. 30th, 1932,Sarah M., wife of Lycurgus Atler, aged 62 years.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral at the Beulah Cemetery Chapel on Saturday, december 2d, at 3 o'clock p.m. Friends may call at the Parlors of A.S. Worthington, Wycombe, Friday evening 7 to 9 o'clock.

Mrs. Lycurgus Atler
Mrs. Sarah Atler, aged 62 years, wife of Lycurgus Atler, died at her home at Edison on Wednesday night, Nov. 30, after having been ill about a year.
The deceased had been a residentof the Edison section for about 5 years having moved to that place from Castle Valley.
Survirors include her husband, her mother, two sones, Frank Atler, Edison and William Atler, Doylestown, a number of brothers and sisters and three grandchildren.


 

 

Page last updated:     February 21, 2022          Broken Links and to contribute additional data email - Nancy

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1864) 2nd Inaugural

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 

 

A Timeline of Bucks County History - Mercer Museum PDF

SOURCES

  • The Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), the state tree of Pennsylvania, is one of the dominant trees of the Commonwealth's forests...
One website can not be all things to all people
- Nancy Janyszeski

"I haven't failed. I've found 10,000 ways that don't work."

- Thomas Alva Edison

Copyright© 1997-2022

Nancy C. Janyszeski All rights reserved.     Information submitted remains, to the extent the laws allows, the property of the submitter who by submitting it agrees that it may be freely copied, but never sold or used in a commercial venture without the knowledge and permission of the rightful owners.   

This website was created as a guide to the history and genealogy of Bucks County Pennsylvania. All efforts have been made to be accurate and to document sources. Some of the material has been contributed and published, with permission, in good faith. All effort has been made to be accurate as possible, and to refer to sources used. If you see an error, please let me know. This website was designed to be informative, a guide to Bucks County history and genealogical research, and hopefully fun. I can't guarantee that all the data is accurate.

Broken Links:  NancyJanyszeski@yahoo.com
Bucks County

February 21, 2022